Angkor/Khmer Empire

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Transcript of Angkor/Khmer Empire

The Rise And FallOf... How Society Was Organised? How Did The Empire Come To Power? The Empire's Greatest Achievements! How It All Came To An End... The Khmer Empire Society was organised in many ways, but all of the creations, rights and life were believed to have belonged to the king who was thought to be a god. The society of the empire was very different to most other kingdoms, as it was in 4 parts; the king or royal court, brahmins and monks, peasants and village workers/farmers. The king's body guards were women because they were believed to be more honest and trustworthy. All of this organising wasn't always good though, mainly because they had one religion. Hinduism, which was later changed to buddhism, and brought the whole kingdom down... Many know that the Angkor/Khmer Empire was very powerful, but how did it come to power? It starts with the advanced water and irrigation systems which they used to harvest crops. They then used their unique ability of trading, to trade with other villages, towns and kingdoms. But before all of this, the people had to get the land... 20 years of wars commenced and ended, and victory went to the Angkor army. More and more land was captured and with that, temples slowly rose. The temples were created, along with Angkor Wat, and the people began to make canals from the Sap Lake, not far from the main temples, to transport water. Roads were also being created for easy transport and trade. But, these roads were used for their unintended purpose, an easy way for the enemy to enter the temples... Although this happened, Angkor had enough small armies to defend the Empire. Along the journey, the Angkor/Khmer Empire achieved many great things, such as Angkor Wat, the biggest temple of the empire. Smaller temples and secret watchtowers were also build in the surrounding jungles.Thinking one step ahead, the people of the empire knew what was needed next, which was water and irrigation for their crops. Starting from Sap Lake, they made small canals running all the way to the temples, transporting enough water for irrigation and the harvesting of crops. Not all of this was made by only the Khmer people. In fact, it was made with the help of other societies. They reached these other societies with advanced roads, which were also used for trading. But these roads weren't always used for the intended purpose... Many reasons can explain the Empire's fall, but it was mainly the society that brought it all down... changes to the society, such as religion changes, made people believe different things, like getting rid of anything with very little use, as well as smaller temples and watchtowers. Along with this tragedies occurred, a plague known as "black death" spread and killed many of the peasants, workers and royalty. More wars came, and most of the population were taken as slaves by the Chems or killed because of their levels of defense. But, there is still more! Ecological change and damage caused loss of topsoil and extreme amounts of water run-off. All of these issues affected the harvesting of crops, so the trading and selling began to decrease. Eventually, most of the outer temples were overgrown by jungle and trees. One of the greatest Empires of the world rapidly disappeared... just like that.